The music that has been occupying quite a bit of my attention during the past month was some of my own. As I have been sharing on the homepage for the past month or so, several of my new, short original compositions were featured on a program for families called “Libraries Rock!” at the Cape Girardeau Public Library in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on June 16, 2018. The character of the program was the brainchild of Dr. Sophia Han, violinist and faculty member at Southeast Missouri State University, with whom I’ve been collaborating on several musical projects during the past year.
Dr. Han, Zach Stern (saxophone), and Lesly Krome (narrator) presented the children’s books Harold and the Purple Crayon and Ellie In Concert at the library in a short program. As Krome read the books’ text, Han and Stern performed incidental music that I had composed for the stories. I wrote a combination of descriptive cues — such as ones for the apple tree and dragon in Harold — mood music, action music — such as for when Harold fell from the mountain or was sinking in the water — and a theme song for each book. Children attending were encouraged to dress up as their favorite animals, and the performers channeled a peacock, a unicorn, and an elephant.
I’m looking forward to reprising the music at a future event with Han and Stern, for whom I also wrote four miniatures for violin and saxophone duet, and I’m especially grateful to the entrepreneurial Dr. Han for garnering attention for the program on local media. You can check out a video here.
